Conservative MP George Eustice has told the BBC that the problem with Labour was its "hyper-active legislation"

"They spent ages bringing in bills that were badly thought through sand then they needed to use sessions to undo what they’d done and reverse the mistakes they’d made," he said.

“I think this government had a full session, a very long session – two years – some very big pieces of legislation went though, and I actually think it’s right that you don’t just jam the programme with endless legislation for the sake of it.”

The government has been accused of quietly rowing back on political reform by omitting plans to introduce the power to recall MPs mid-term from the Queen's Speech.

Tory backbencher Zac Goldsmith questioned why a Bill was not mentioned in the list of legislation announced on Wednesday morning.

"So where was the promised Recall Bill in the Queen's speech? How can Government expect to 'rebuild trust' if it so casually drops key promises?" he said.

The Prime Minister has mounted a robust defence of his government in the House Of Commons.

He said:

"This is a government that confronts the long-term challenges that we face, and that is what our country needs. A government that rolls up its sleeves to deal with the deficit, not an Opposition that thinks you can borrow your way out of debt."

"A Coalition government that is determined to unleash the private sector, spread growth around our country, sort out our financial services. Not a Labour one that bloated the public sector, sat back while an unregulated banking sector brought our country to its knees."

"A government that is backing hard-working people, not an Opposition that says it’s on their side but refuses to make work pay, refuses to cap welfare and wants to heave debts onto our children."

"This is a government that is taking the tough decisions to help families who work hard and do the right thing. Acting for the long term, governing in the national interest, this is a Queen’s speech to rebuild Britain, and I commend it to the House."

After seeming to fall asleep during a Budget statement by George Osborne, is Ken Clarke in danger of doing the same as Cameron speaks?

@ EmilyThornberry : Cameron rambles on and his backbenchers look bored and switch off. The Lord Chancellor has dropped off.

"It is about a government taking the tough long-term decisions to restore our country to strength, dealing with the deficit, rebalancing the economy and rewarding people who do the right thing."

Speaking in Parliament, the Prime Minister has defended proposals that have caused controversy for their apparent invasiveness.

“What we are trying to do here is not look at the content of people’s telephone calls, but just to update the measures for finding out who called who and when

“I say to people, of course let’s look at the detail, but I don’t want to be the Prime Minister standing at this despatch box saying ‘we could have done more on terrorism’.”

The Chairman of Parliament's International Development Committee has expressed disappointment at the failure to pass into law a 0.7% GDP commitment on international aid.

Speaking in Parliament, Malcolm Bruce added "However, I recognise that legislation is not required to meet that commitment".

Business Secretary Vince Cable has told the BBC that reform of the House of Lords should not distract Parliament from the "bread and butter issue" of the economy.

“The underlying narrative is of getting past this enormous economic crisis we’ve had, the collapse of the banking system and getting back to growth and job creation. It’s going to be very, very difficult. But the legislation we’re bringing in will underpin that.

“It should not take time because all the major parties agree in principle…a bit of common sense and it should go through very quickly, without a great deal of fuss.

“I want us to spend time on the bread and butter issues. Supporting business, supporting growth, that’s where the emphasis has got to be…

For those of you who missed it, here is the video of Queen Elizabeth II's speech to MPs and Lords

Gary Smith, the GMB's National Secretary for Commercial Services, says the Government’s plan to introduce more competition in the water industry is "completely the wrong approach and out of step with what the vast majority of the public want."

Labour's Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan has attacked the coalition for failing to do enough on Lords reform in the Queen's Speech.

clear it is ready to trust the people.

of Lords leaves big questions unanswered.

Lords.

what they intend to do about it.”

Talking to Sky News, Baroness Warsi notably avoided mentioning election as a way of reforming the House of Lords.

"Let's see what the Bill looks like," she said

“If you speak to members of the House of Lords and I do so almost every day, the kind of things that will come up is they think that the House of Lords is too big, members will accept that it needs to be smaller. Members accept that maybe there needs to be some discussion around retirement ages.

“I look forward to seeing what the Bill looks like but what I am convinced about is that there are issues which can be looked at in terms of Lords reform like the size of it, like age, like the expulsion of members who serve a prison sentence for example.”

The shadow Justice Secretary says:

“There is no mention here of a referendum. The Government must make clear it is ready to trust the people.

“The 15 words in the Queen’s Speech dedicated to reform of the House of Lords leaves big questions unanswered.

“It’s not clear if Lords reform remains a priority for the Government. It's not clear how they plan to reform the composition of the House of Lords.

“After almost two years, this demonstrates the incompetence of this Tory-led Government. Lords reform was heavily trailed as the centre piece of the Queen’s Speech but they still don’t have a clue about what they intend to do about it.”

Speaking to the BBC, Labour MP Stephen Twigg attacked the Government for failing to address the real concerns of the country in the Queen's Speech.

“There’s very little in it. There’s very little that meets the real concerns of the public as expressed last Friday. We don’t know the detail really. We know the headlines, but we haven’t got anything that addresses the jobs crisis.

"We haven’t got anything that seriously addresses living standards. If I was a mum or dad at home watching this, just had my tax credits cut, there’s not a lot in it for me. If I was one of the young people unemployed for over a year, there’s not a lot in there for me.

“The reality is that we’re in a double-dip recession where the economy isn’t growing and we have over one million young people unemployed. I’m not convinced that anything that’s in there is actually going to address that crisis.”

Petra Wilton, of the Chartered Management Institute, has said that the agenda announced in the Queen's Speech will transform management and bring lasting change, if correctly implemented.

"These welcome measures should provide greater freedom for managers and leaders to create working environments that can fully engage employees and help drive UK economic growth" she added

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, has described the coalition's legislative programme as "riddled with attacks on working people."

He said:

“Despite the rhetoric, this is not a good parliamentary programme for children and families.

“The programme is riddled with attacks on working people who have children and families.

“Making it easier to sack people creates further massive insecurity for millions of ordinary working families and does nothing to create jobs or secure economic recovery.

“This parliamentary programme is the vehicle for bringing an end to the right of ordinary working people to a decent occupational pension.

“This programme is a continuation of the Tory ideological reform agenda for which grass roots Liberal Democrats are paying an increasingly high price.”

Simon Walker, from the Institute for Directors, says the government needs to back up its words in the Queen's Speech.

"“The Government is right to place deficit reduction and economic stability at the forefront of their programme. However, we need to see them pursued enthusiastically in practice, not just in principle. To restore business confidence, which is the real key to growth, there must be drastic measures to cut costly regulation and continue to tackle the deficit. Tweaking the edges of the system will not be enough – it’s not the number of Bills that matters, it’s what is in them that really counts.”"